how to draw female comic characters (according to Wizard)...

[ratcreature]

brown_betty asked for examples "to illustrate the exactly how and why female comic characters are illustrated differently than the male." And I thought, really, what's better to illustrate these things than the books teaching the style in the first place?

A while ago I posted some scans from Wizard How To Draw series on drawing female superheroes (here and here), and I thought I'd post a bunch more from the first book of the series on "How To Draw: Heroic Anatomy".


As everything, it starts with the basics, i.e. proportions. First the male superhero


The female example is similar, but slightly different, notice how he stands firm and straight, wheras she stands with her hips cocked a little and the leg thrust forward?


Also notice in the direct torso comparison below, how the male one is ramrod straight, but she curves and leans just a little bit in the same pose?


Now onwards to the chapter "Sultry Women". It even cautions you against overposing! Yes, it's not as if Wizard wasn't aware of the problems! (Their definition and mine of which poses are already overposed might differ slightly though, heh.)





Next, Michael Turner explains "Sex Appeal". (Or what he thinks sex appeal is.) Incidentally it also illustrates the meaning of "overposed" that was brought up in the previous chapter very effectively...





Finally for compare and contrast purpuses the chapters on "Superheroic Men" and "Superheroic Women". For the male superhero it is all about more or less ridiculously enlarged muscles as we learn:





Female superheroes don't have it that easy, they need to worry about tilting their shoulder, nipple and pubic lines attractively at all times, not to mention legs, breast size, eye make-up and hair:

Comments

[shaenon.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. I remember reading some of these in Wizard as a teenager, way back in the '90s. They did a "how to draw" feature every month, and it was almost always about drawing either fight scenes or women in bikinis.

Adam Hughes is a hell of an artist, and his pencils here are gorgeous. Too bad every line of his sub-Maxim nudge-nudge text makes me throw up in my mouth a little. Would it have killed him and the Wizard editors to cut the cute stuff and actually tell people how to draw? Jim Balent and Michael Turner are, of course, unsalvageable. Turner's entire career is built on drawing "hot" women, so why is he still so bad at it? His lines are harsh and angular, his faces are squinty afterthoughts, and he seems to have no idea that women have things like ribcages. Don't tell impressionable fourteen-year-olds how to repeat your terrible mistakes, Michael!

[ratcreature]

Well, I found the chapters that are not dealing with human "anatomy" much better overall, like stuff on pacing or dramatic tension or inking tips. I mean my expectations for Wizard publications wrt women are so low that it didn't suprise me at all.

And Linsner's chapter on Women that I partially scanned for my initial rant when I first bought the book a while back says even less about drawing, he just rambles on for four pages about what he finds hot. The chapter is seriously bizarre, more so than Hughes', IMO:
http://pics.livejournal.com/ratcreature/pic/0003ff38
http://pics.livejournal.com/ratcreature/pic/0003g190

[morchades.livejournal.com]

I'm so humiliated. When I was a teenaged I liked Lisner. Now he freaks me out.

[ratcreature]

Don't be too hard on yourself. Being a teenager excuses a lot. ;)

I don't think I remember ever reading anything drawn by Linsner myself, but reading his article I don't think I missed much...

[xoverau.livejournal.com]

OMG I am so creeped out!

Sorry. *tiptoes out of thread*

[(Anonymous)]

At least he's up-front about it; as a woman I find that easier to take than the "don't overpose" while overposing BS....
~QHMotU